A Night in Autumn
by igirisexual
Summary: Sanji is weary and sleep-deprived, but he still wants to work his hardest. He can't even think straight enough to tell what he's doing. Domestic and established SanUso.


Evening light drenched the city. Sanji waited in the elevator, feeling it rise and watching the lights on the buttons change. His apartment was on one of the higher floors, and the ride up was longer than he would've liked. It finally stopped at the right stop, and he left the elevator, tiredly stumbling to his door. He was so tired, having worked overtime at the Baratie tonight. He was still worked to the bone after all these years, but it was his choice to work overtime. He liked having money, he supposed. Considering his boyfriend was between jobs and had been for a while, it was better if he worked hard enough to support both of them comfortably.

He pulled out his key and put it into the lock, gently turning it and trying to push the door open. It didn't move, and it occurred to him the door hadn't been locked before. He'd just locked it, just now. He frowned and slumped against it, too tired to consider fixing it up. He had closed his eyes and rested his mind a moment, and he wasn't paying enough attention to hear the clicking of the door being unlocked from the inside. It was pulled open, and Sanji fell atop the man opening it. Usopp caught him, surprised, and Sanji snapped fully awake.

"Shit," he mumbled, slumping against Usopp. "Ugh, sorry," he murmured quietly.

"Hey, it's alright," said Usopp quietly, helping Sanji to stand up straight. "Coming home late again, I see," he remarked. It seemed Usopp had been in bed, or ready for it, at least, as he was in sweatpants and nothing else. Sanji loosened his tie and went inside, half-assedly folding his clothes as he took them off, and wearily redressing himself in leggings and one of Usopp's shirts, since he couldn't he fucked to find one of his own.

Usopp stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "You don't have to exert yourself, y'anno," he frowned, pouting his thick lips and looking at him, concerned.

"Hey, shut up, I'm doing fine," Sanji murmured. "You eat yet?" he said, leaving the bedroom and trudging through, into the kitchen.

"Hey, you just worked all night," Usopp huffed, scrabbling after him and taking his shoulders from behind. Sanji, not thinking, swung around and kneed Usopp in the gut.

"Ow," Usopp wheezed, holding his middle and stepping back. "Sanji, what the fuck," he mumbled, staring at him. Sanji frowned and stumbled back too.

"Don't surprise me like that," he stammered, brow creasing as he shakily turned back to the kitchen, going in and looking in the pantry, as if nothing had happened.

"Sanji, apologise," Usopp murmured, putting a hand on the counter and looking at him, hurt and confused. "I know you didn't mean it, but just apologise."

"Sorry," Sanji muttered. "You shouldn't have done that, though." Usopp frowned, turning around and looking away from him.

"I've already eaten." He lied, crossing his arms. "Don't cook anything. You need sleep."

"What did you eat?" Sanji asked, not disturbed at all from the task at hand. "Did you make it?"

"That leftover fish with hot sauce from the fridge," he said, huffing. Sanji simply went to the fridge, opened it, and scoffed.

"Liar."

Usopp puffed. "Well, I'm not hungry. You need sleep, Sanji." His stomach growled, and if it didn't still hurt from being kicked, he would've punched it and told it to shut up. "I'll even give you a favor if you go to bed right now."

"Maybe if you were a woman," Sanji said, wearily putting some water on to boil and starting to get out some vegetables. Usopp just growled, incredulous as to what an asshole Sanji was being to his own boyfriend right now.

Sanji was cutting up the vegetables calmly and collectedly, as per the norm, when his hand slipped. His hands never slipped; he was a master of his craft. He didn't make mistakes like this. He looked at the blood now on his cutting board and stepped back, staring. He had missed, slicing a bit on his fingertip. At the quiet gasp he let out, Usopp turned, and sighed.

"Go on, run it under some water," he murmured softly, reaching up on top of the fridge for the first aid kit. Sanji stumbled over to the sink and did so, almost knocking over the pot of bubbling hot water. Usopp clicked his tongue and after putting the med kit down, turned off the boiling water.

He took to quickly taking Sanji's hand and drying it, before gently curling a band-aid around the wound. He put the vegetables back in the fridge, and, holding Sanji by his shoulders, led him to the bedroom. "What did I tell you?" Usopp asked quietly, sitting him down and going around to the other side of the bed. "You can't keep overworking yourself. You're going to call in sick tomorrow, and rest up, okay?" he murmured, getting under the covers and watching Sanji tiredly do the same.

"Okay?" Usopp murmured, gently putting his hand on Sanji's shoulder. "Listen to me."

"Mmhm," Sanji muttered, shuffling closer and snaking an arm loosely around Usopp's back. "I'm sorry."

"If you have enough energy tomorrow, we can maybe go to the park, yeah?" he said quietly, nose poking softly against Sanji's. "It's beautiful these days, pretty colours everywhere," he said quietly. "If you want, you can watch me paint."

"Sounds good," Sanji whispered softly, closing his sea-blue eyes and sighing. "Kiss me goodnight. Then I'll sleep," he mumbled, although he was drifting off already. Usopp slowly complied, turning his head and pushing his lips carefully against Sanji's cheek. It seemed he was already off in dreamland.


End file.
